Antipodean Spiderfish,
Bathypterois oddiSulak 1977

Other Names: Underworld Feelerfish

An Antipodean Spiderfish, Bathypterois oddi, from a depth of 4000 metres on the abyssal plain east of Newcastle, New South Wales. Source: John Pogonoski / Australlian National Fish Collection, CSIRO. License: All rights reserved

Summary:

A dark slender tripodfish with two extremely long pectoral-fin rays, elongate pelvic fins with a very long first ray, and a long lower caudal-fin lobe with an elongated lower finray. The Antipodean Spiderfish has deciduous scales and lacks a distinctive subcaudal notch.

Antipodean Spiderfish,
Bathypterois oddiSulak 1977

More Info

Depth

First recorded from the Great Australian Bight off southern Australia (c. 127-129 E) by Sulak & Shcherbachev, 1988 (depth 4400m) but without specific lat /longs (Dmitri Mendeleev Cruise 16, station 1358). More recently collected from Great Australian Bight, SA (c. 131-132 E) in depths of 3400-5000m. There are some taxonomic differences between the recently (2017) collected GAB material and the type specimens that need further investigation

Distribution

Known from off central New South Wales to the Great Australian Bight, South Australia. Elsewhere the species occurs in New Zealand and on the sub-antarctic Crozet Plateau in the southern Indian Ocean.